It’s officially the season of love, which means no matter what your relationship status is, you could use a good romance book or a cinematic love story to keep you warm on cold nights.
Luckily for you, we’ve got two handfuls of recent romance novels and matching classic films to keep your reading light and your TV remote working overtime. We can guarantee these movies will bring the same amount of romance, favorite tropes, swoony scenarios and all of the feels that the books do. And vice versa!
Because my novel, His Girl Hollywood is set in 1930s Hollywood, I’m specifically recommending films made during the Golden Age of Hollywood that provide the glamorous setting for my novels. So slip into something that makes you feel good and cue up these 10 old-Hollywood movie and book pairings.
‘His Girl Hollywood’ and ‘It’s Always Fair Weather’ (1955)
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Set in 1930s Hollywood, His Girl Hollywood follows Arlene Morgan, an Oscar-winning screenwriter getting her first (and possibly only) shot at directing a studio film. Arlene knows she’ll have to prove her worth in the male-dominated field, but things get complicated when her leading man turns out to be Broadway star, Don Lamont, once Don Lazzarini and her next-door neighbor for whom she still carries a torch.
His Girl Hollywood’s hero takes major inspiration from classic movie hunk Gene Kelly, particularly this film and its zany organized crime antics. The film follows Kelly’s Ted Riley, as he reunites with war buddies Doug Hallerton (Dan Dailey) and Angie Valentine (Michael Kidd) — only to discover the things that held them together 10 years prior have long since changed. Plus, Kelly tap dances on roller skates!
‘Hot Hex Boyfriend’ by Carly Bloom and ‘I Married a Witch’ (1942)
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In Hot Hex Boyfriend, warlock Max Halifax is sent to tamp down the magic (and re-hex) the Merriwether family, including the fetching Delia, whose family believes she is their great destiny even if she doesn’t actually believe she’s a witch. But things get complicated when the two catch feelings.
I Married a Witch reverses the roles a tad with Veronica Lake’s Jennifer sent by her father to destroy the life of Wallace Wooley (Fredric March) whose ancestors once condemned them in Puritanical New England. But Jennifer’s own magic gets the better of her when she falls for the hapless Wallace.
‘The Worst Best Man’ by Mia Sosa and ‘The Philadelphia Story’ (1940)
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The Worst Best Man is a delicious tale of swapped fiancees and general screwball mayhem. Wedding planner Carolina Santos has never recovered from getting left at the altar, but she gets a major business opportunity that could change her life. The catch? It requires her to collaborate with her ex’s brother, who might be cuter than she remembered.
The Philadelphia Story circles around similar marital mayhem — when C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant) recruits reporter Macaulay “Mike” Connor to cover his ex-wife’s society wedding, he really just needs a front to try to win back the haughty Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn). But soon the trio find themselves in a love triangle of epically hilarious proportions.
‘What a Difference a Duke Makes’ by Lenora Bell and ‘The Sound of Music’
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We’re a sucker for a “master of the house falling for his governess” story and Lenora Bell’s What a Difference a Duke Makes is a master class in how to write one full of swoons that also delicately handles the tricky power dynamic.
Of course, our favorite version of this story is The Sound of Music in which Fraulein Maria (Julie Andrews) can’t help but win the heart of Captain Von Trapp (Christopher Plummer), a widower with seven children. We have confidence you’ll love both this book and this film.
‘A Princess in Theory’ by Alyssa Cole and ‘Roman Holiday’ (1953)
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Who doesn’t love a good “princess living life as a normie” romance? That’s at the heart of Alyssa Cole’s A Princess in Theory, which follows scientist Naledi Smith, whose life is thrown into disarray when she discovers the emails she’s been receiving from an African prince are, in fact, very real.
In Roman Holiday, Audrey Hepburn stars as Princess Ann, a royal who gets to enjoy Rome as a regular person for one day with Gregory Peck’s Joe Bradley playing tour guide. Both the film and the book examine the gap between everyday life and royalty, particularly when it comes to romance.
‘Hurts to Love You’ by Alisha Rai and ‘All That Heaven Allows’ (1955)
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If you like heaps of angst with your love stories, Hurts to Love You delivers with its tale of forbidden love between heiress Evangeline Chandler and housekeeper’s son Gabriel Hunter.
So does All that Heaven Allows, which also relies on the values and expectations of the American upper middle class to keep its lovers apart. Widow Cary Scott (Jane Wyman) strikes up an unexpected romance with her gardener, Ron Kirby (Rock Hudson), but the judgment of her friends and children threatens to tear them apart in this Douglas Sirk directed melodrama.
‘My Favorite Leopard’ by Brianne Gillen and ‘Bringing Up Baby’
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Lovers of shifter romance, we’ve got you covered. Brianne Gillen’s novella, My Favorite Leopard, combines the glamor of Old Hollywood with a romance between actress/shifter Lina Leonard and animal trainer Tony Benson.
The novella draws inspiration from all-time classic Bringing Up Baby, which puts paleontologist David Huxley (Cary Grant) in the path of wacky heiress Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn) and her pet leopard, Baby. It’s worth a watch for Grant’s double-take when he first meets Baby alone.
‘The Other Side of Disappearing’ by Kate Clayborn and ‘It Happened One Night (1934)
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We love a good road-trip romance, and last year’s’ The Other Side of Disappearing brought us a cross-country adventure with deep emotional baggage. When Jess Greene agrees to accompany her sister Tegan and podcast producer Adam on a journey in search of her long-lost mother and her con-man boyfriend, she doesn’t expect the trip to unearth so many of her long-buried vulnerabilities.
Similarly, in It Happened One Night, when reporter Peter Warne (Clark Gable) offers to help heiress Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) stay on the run in exchange for a good story, he doesn’t expect to fall for her. Hey, life on the road can really bring people together.
‘Beach Read’ by Emily Henry and ‘His Girl Friday’ (1940)
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Whether they’re novelists or journalists, we love a writerly romance. In Beach Read, romance novelist January Andrews and lit fic author Augustus “Gus” Everett agree to swap genres to try to break their writers’ block — but the lessons they give each other bloom into something much deeper.
A similar connection exists between working girl Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell) and her ex-husband Walter Burns (Cary Grant). So much so that she can’t resist being pulled back into the reporting game — and their relationship — when a huge story unfolds right under their noses.
‘A Love Most Fatal’ by Kath Richards and ‘Ball of Fire’ (1941)
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Gangster girls and academics don’t mix — or do they? In A Love Most Fatal, the heir to the Morelli crime family, Vanessa Morelli, is irritated when her family puts pressure on her to marry. But when a date with her godson’s math teacher, Nate, goes horribly wrong, he ends up hiding out with her and helping her screen prospective husbands.
Ball of Fire also pairs up a gangster’s moll, Sugarpuss O’Shea (Barbara Stanwyck), and a professor, Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper) who work together trying to take down her mob boss boyfriend, all while falling in love.
‘A Cowboy to Remember’ by Rebekah Weatherspoon and ‘Spellbound’ (1945)
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While amnesia is more complex in real life, it makes excellent fodder for romance on page and screen. Rebekah Weatherspoon’s A Cowboy to Remember employs it in the case of rising chef Evie Buchanan and cowboy Zach Pleasant. After a fall that robs her of her memory, Evie is sent to recuperate with Zach’s family, but can he start fresh with her when she can’t remember their past?
In Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound, Ingrid Bergman’s Dr. Constance Peterman takes over the care of amnesiac John Ballantyne (Gregory Peck) and promptly falls in love with him. But if their romance is to stand a chance, she must help him uncover the trauma that has robbed him of his memories.
